It all depends on the money factor and residual... If the manufacturer is offering a special money factor then its great... Make sure you negociate the price of the car 1st

Money factor (example .003) times (X) 2400 = your interst rate... In the example here it is 7.2%

Also, some leases ( all at my work, Honda ) have free gap insurance so if you total the car you don't pay the difference of the insurance and the buy out price... A good reason to lease.... And not put too much down on a lease

 

Yeah, BMW leases are often great deals. It will be interesting to see if they lease this one. In all honesty, they should especially with the more mature audience they are going for.. Also, people are less likely to modify or modify heavily a leased car which I think mitsu would like.

 

You guys aren't alone.

My sister has been financing Honda Accord after Honda Accord every few years. She usually has to roll over the negative equity from the older car to the newer car because she gets tired of the car before the loan is paid off. In the last 10 years her payments ranged from $400-$600. She never really owned the car even though it was financed because she traded the car in 1-2 years before the car was paid off. But she also didn't have the mileage restriction that she would have had if she leased. Although there isn't a mileage restriction on financed cars, the value of the trade in depends on the mileage that the car has accumulated. So you end up paying for those miles in the end anyway.

To make a long story short; $400-600 a month is what I have been paying in monthly lease payments for the last 10 years. The only difference between me and my sister is that I've been driving/leasing BMWs during that time (and an Audi), I never had to pay a $5g down-payment like she has to, and if we both had to get rid of our cars today? Her negative Equity is more than any lease penalty that I have to pay.

The above story was true up until 2004 (when I decided to finance a car that was coming off lease). I just shifted the dates as if it were today. Currently I'm in the same situation as my sister. We both have financed cars that are upside-down.

financing only make sense if you plan on keeping the same car for 10 years plus. Who wants to do that?

It all boils down to this; Cars are a depreciating asset. You shouldn't purchase a deprecating asset, you should lease a deprecating asset. You lose less money that way.

 

Well said, I use the "depreciating asset" term all the time when I sell cars. And to the people who say you can't modify a leased car is bull. I've modified the gills of my leased GTO and will put it back to stock and sell the parts when the car goes back to GMAC in September. Within reason you can change almost anything on a leased car as long as it goes back to stock when you return it.

I can't tell you how many people sell their modified cars and only get market value or less (to some people a modded car is a turn off). Modifing any car is a bad investment unless you remove and sell the parts before you return or sell the car.

 

I remember a couple years ago I wanted to lease a brand new 9 when it came out. They told me it would be cheaper to buy one. they quoted me like 630/month because mitsubishi takes a big risk with leasing these since they are often abused.

That's what they told me anyway. I ended up buying a GTI that year...

 

Wow, $630 a month? What was your APR%?

 

no idea, it was a couple years ago. I was pretty ingnorant to car buying back then.

I just remember them telling me that they did not like leasing those cars because they are so abused.